MCA Bubble Kids

The plan is to identify the students 5-8

points away from not meeting standards in
the area of math on the MCA tests. Offer
MCA prep sessions to increase their scores
to meeting standards.
Jodi Vanderheiden- Field based Research- April 2015

Research
In general the research says that just practicing problems similar

to the those that will be on a standardized test is not enough to

increase student scores. The skills of reading and finding
valuable information, guiding students through test taking

strategies of eliminating choices that are obviously not going to

work, reading questions before reading a passage or solving a
problem, and how to pick out basic key vocabulary to assist
students in being successful on a standardized test.

The Results Show

Results after MCA Prep

The blue box

represents the

students that did

attend the prep
sessions. The rust
box represents the
students that didnt
attend the prep
sessions.

Summary of Results
Students attending the prep sessions made a gain of 6.9
points from the OLPA to the MCA. 7 out of the 10
students met standards.

Students NOT attending the prep sessions made a gain

of only 4.38 points from the OLPA to the MCA. Only 7
out of the 18 met standards in the end.

Although the number of students that actually attended was

small the gains they made I feel are pretty significant. This year
I included reading in this MCA preparatory plan. We still have a

small number of students who are attending the sessions. We

were only able to offer 5 sessions for math and 5 sessions for
reading instead of the 9 sessions for math we had last year.
Testing is not yet finished for the 2015 testing window. It will be
interesting to see if the prep classes continue to have an impact
on those students that attend.